Tidal marshes (including saltmarshes) provide remarkable value for many social (cultural, recreational) and environmental (fish production, water quality, shoreline protection, carbon sequestration) services. However, their extent, condition, and capacity to support these services are threatened by human development expansion, invasive species, erosion, altered hydrology and connectivity, and climate change. The past two decades have seen a shift toward working with managers to restore tidal marshes to conserve existing patches or create new marshes. The present perspective examines key features of recent tidal marsh restoration projects. Although optimism about restoration is building, not all marshes are the same; site-specific nuances require careful consideration, and thus, standard restoration designs are not possible. Restoration projects are effectively experiments, requiring clear goals, monitoring and evaluation, and adaptive management practices. Restoration is expensive; however, payment schemes for ecosystem services derived from restoration offer new ways to fund projects and appropriate monitoring and evaluation programs. All information generated by restoration needs to be published and easily accessible, especially failed attempts, to equip practitioners and scientists with actionable knowledge for future efforts. We advocate the need for a network of tidal marsh scientists, managers, and practitioners to share and disseminate new observations and knowledge. Such a network will help augment our capacity to restore tidal marsh, but also valuable coastal ecosystems more broadly.

Flood mitigation and protection of coastal infrastructure are key elements of coastal management decisions. Similarly, regulating and provisioning roles of coastal habitats have increasingly prompted policy makers to consider the value of ecosystem goods and services in these same decisions, broadly defined as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.” We applied these principles to a study at three earthen levees used for flood protection. By restricting tidal flows, the levees degraded upstream wetlands, either by reducing salinity, creating standing water, and/or by supporting monocultures of invasive variety Phragmites australis. The wetlands, located at Greenwich, NJ, on Delaware Bay, were evaluated for restoration in this study. If unrestricted tidal flow were reestablished with mobile gates or similar devices, up to 226 ha of tidal salt marsh would be potentially restored to Spartina spp. dominance. Using existing literature and a value transfer approach, the estimated total economic value (TEV) of goods and services provided annually by these 226 ha of restored wetlands ranged from $2,058,182 to $2,390,854 y−1. The associated annual engineering cost for including a mobile gate system to fully restore tidal flows to the upstream degraded wetlands was about $1,925,614 y−1 resulting in a benefit-cost ratio range of 0.98–1.14 over 50 years (assuming no wetland benefits realized during the first 4 years). Thus, inclusion of a cost-effective mobile gate system in any engineering design to improve long-term flood resilience in the region would produce dual benefits of protecting people and property from major storms, while preserving and enhancing ecosystem values.

Tidal salt marshes are an essential part of coastal seascapes. These intertidal habitats, and the plants that colonise them, confer structural and functional characteristics that are essential for the broader function of estuarine ecosystems, and the marine systems beyond, but also provide crucial protection for coastal infrastructure. One of the most widely recognised services provided by tidal marshes is the support of fish, crustacean, and mollusc species that are exploited through fisheries. This support takes many forms, such as the provision of key habitat for juveniles and adults alike, improved water quality resulting from the filtration and cleansing functions that these habitats perform, and through primary production and trophic provisioning which supports growth and productivity of exploited species. Early descriptors of these processes included the seminal contribution by Teal (1962) who demonstrated that primary production (P) in Georgia salt marshes was greater than community respiration (R), P/R > 1, an observation that led him to assume that excess production was “outwelled” to the greater estuary and coastal zone. Not long after, Gunter (1967) noted that the vast majority of commercial finfish and shellfish had “estuarine-dependent” early life stages, and this concept was soon extended to include tidal salt marshes that serve as critical “nurseries” for the young of marine transient species (e.g. Weinstein 1979). Similarly, Haines (1979) revised the early salt marsh paradigm to include not only in situ processes, but the export of marsh production to the greater estuary and coastal environs through the flow of organic matter and nutrients and organisms, the latter described as “trophic relays” (Kneib 1997). These functional linkages (or “connectivity” as we have come to call it) have been highlighted in many studies in the period since. Twowatershedworkshops have progressed research on tidal salt marshes: the first in 1958 (Ragotszkie et al. 1959) and the second in 1998 (Weinstein and Kreeger 2000). During the > 50 years covered by these two events, research has focussed on diverse themes within the discipline such as biogeochemistry, outwelling, nutrient exchange, as well as broader questions of tidal marsh structure and function. Over this period, various controversies have emerged, and some of these have been resolved, but importantly the services provided by these systems in support of fisheries species have remained a central theme of investigation within the field for the past 70 years. As our knowledge base has continued to increase, so has our appreciation of the inherent complexity of tidal marsh systems and their connections with the broader coastal seascape. The 1998 symposium laid a solid foundation for the two decades of research that followed, but the twenty-first century has brought with it an amplification of historic threats, as well as novel challenges, and new ideas and opportunities for conserving and rebuilding tidal marsh systems and preserving their important role in food security into the future. However, as the human population continues to grow, tidal marsh systems have increasing pressures, and the areal coverage of these environments has greatly reduced. The recognition of tidal salt marshes as essential components of coastal economies has led to increased efforts to protect against further loss and/or degradation of these habitats. Ecological restoration has a foundation in ecological fidelity (Higgs 1997) and the human dimensions (Cairns Jr. et al. 1977), but because human activities in the Anthropocene have pushed the earth Communicated by Paul A. Montagna

Salt marsh ecosystems and the seascapes in which they are embedded serve as critical habitats for species harvested by fisheries (1), which provide food and economic security for hundreds of millions of people (2). Historical marsh losses coupled with increasing pressures from coastal development and climate change place these intertidal ecosystems and surrounding uplands under growing threat (3). Preventing further losses of salt marshes and associated fisheries production will require greater public awareness and difficult choices in coastal policy and management, underpinned by greater understanding of marsh function.

Tidal marshes are a key component of coastal seascape mosaics that support a suite of socially and economically valuable ecosystem services, including recreational opportunities (e.g., fishing, birdwatching), habitat for fisheries species, improved water quality, and shoreline protection. The capacity for tidal marshes to support these services is, however, threatened by increasingly widespread human impacts that reduce the extent and condition of tidal marshes across multiple spatial scales and that vary substantially through time. Climate change causes species redistribution at continental scales, changes in weather patterns (e.g., rainfall), and a worsening of the effect of coastal squeeze through sea level rise. Simultaneously, the effects of urbanization such as habitat loss, eutrophication, fishing, and the spread of invasive species interact with each other, and with climate change, to fundamentally change the structure and functioning of tidal marshes and their food webs. These changes affect tidal marshes at local scales through changes in plant community composition, complexity, and condition and at regional scales through changes in habitat extent, configuration, and connectivity. However, research into the full effects of these multi-scaled, interactive stressors on ecosystem service provision in tidal marshes is in its infancy and is somewhat geographically restricted. This hinders our capacity to quickly and effectively curb loss and degradation of both tidal marshes and the services they deliver with targeted management actions. We highlight ten priority research questions seeking to quantify the consequences and scales of human impacts on tidal marshes that should be answered to improve management and restoration plans.

There is growing evidence across taxa for a mortality-growth rate tradeoff, however the extent to which individuals experience selection both for and against growing faster in the wild can be difficult to assess. We used otoliths to assess growth rates in the wild for Xiphophorus multilineatus, a species of swordtail fish with genetically influenced male alternative reproductive tactics. The ARTs are thought to be maintained due to a trade-off between a higher probability of reaching sexual maturity (smaller sneaker males) and maturing later as a large male with higher mating success (larger courter males). We show that the early juvenile growth rates of the subadult courter males were faster as compared to the other juveniles, potentially suggesting selection for growing faster to increase the probability of reaching sexual maturity. However, variance in the early juvenile growth rates of adult courter males was reduced (truncating high values) as compared to the subadult courter males and overall growth rates were faster in the subadult courter males than the adult courter males. These results support a cost of growing faster as juveniles: reduced longevity as an adult. We also detected a negative relationship between the early growth rates of females and their age, further supporting a longevity cost to growing faster. While both male ARTs are likely to experience stabilizing selection on growth rates, the differences between the morphs in how they optimize this tradeoff in relation to overall fitness (courters optimize growing faster to increase probability of reaching sexual maturity, sneakers optimize longevity as adults) has the potential to lead to disruptive selection between the ARTs on growth rates. We show that the data collected here is consistent with the “growth-mortality optimization” hypothesis and highlight some of the challenges that stabilizing selection presents for examining adaptive variation of growth rates in a natural environment.

In 2014, a DNA-based phylogenetic study confirming the paraphyly of the grass subtribe Sporobolinae proposed the creation of a large monophyletic genus Sporobolus, including (among others) species previously included in the genera Spartina, Calamovilfa, and Sporobolus. Spartina species have contributed substantially (and continue contributing) to our knowledge in multiple disciplines, including ecology, evolutionary biology, molecular biology, biogeography, experimental ecology, biological invasions, environmental management, restoration ecology, history, economics, and sociology. There is no rationale so compelling to subsume the name Spartina as a subgenus that could rival the striking, global iconic history and use of the name Spartina for over 200 yr. We do not agree with the subjective arguments underlying the proposal to change Spartina to Sporobolus. We understand the importance of both the objective phylogenetic insights and of the subjective formalized nomenclature and hope that by opening this debate we will encourage positive feedback that will strengthen taxonomic decisions with an interdisciplinary perspective. We consider that the strongly distinct, monophyletic clade Spartina should simply and efficiently be treated as the genus Spartina.

Restoration of 4049ha of tidal wetlands was required to offset nekton losses at a power facility located on Delaware Bay, USA. Vegetation coverage, the permitted criterion for success, was compared by meta-analysis to restoration trajectories for abundance and growth of dominant nekton during the same 17-year period at two reference and five restoration sites. Mean catch per unit effort (CPUE), at both upper Bay (former Phragmites australis dominated sites) and lower Bay (former salt hay farms), were generally indistinguishable from those of the reference sites, and Hedge's d for all sites suggested that numbers of individuals at restored locations did not differ significantly from those at the reference sites. Mean length distributions of dominant nekton in the upper Bay, however, were negative for all restoration sites combined by the end of the study. Although growth of nekton at the lower Bay restoration sites was indistinguishable from reference sites, the grand mean length for nekton measured at all sites in the Bay was negative suggesting that nekton growth at the formerly Phragmites-dominated sites failed to meet the restoration goals by the end of the study period. Thus, vegetation success criteria may not necessarily reflect recovery of animal related success criteria.

Estuaries and other coastal habitats are considered essential for the survival of early life stages of commercial, recreational, and other ecologically important species. While early designations simply referred to habitats with higher densities of juveniles as nurseries, the definition was improved by arguing that contribution per unit area to the production of individuals that recruit to adult populations is greater, on average, in nursery habitats. However, this and related approaches typically consider critical habitats as individual, homogeneous entities that are static in nature and do not specifically incorporate important dynamics that determine nursery function. The latter include environmental variability, estuarine hydrodynamics, trophic coupling, ontogenetic habitat shifts, and spatially explicit usage of habitat patches and corridors within larger seascapes. Subsequent studies have identified important factors that regulate nursery value, and researchers working independently across the globe have not only supported the advances made in defining the processes underlying nursery function but, as set forth in this narrative, have advanced it while suggesting that much work still needs to be done to improve our understanding of the links between juvenile nekton survival and the estuarine-coastal seascape. We discuss the current nursery role hypothesis and the data supporting (or refuting) it along with the implications for management of estuarine habitats for the conservation or restoration of nursery function.

A large-scale wetland restoration case-study is discussed in response to fish losses in an open cycle, cooling water system at a generating facility located on Delaware Bay, USA. Stable isotope analyses of vegetation, resident and marine transient finfishes in marshes and open waters of the estuary are described, along with biochemical condition of individuals as it relates to habitat quality, and secondary production. Population dynamics of spot (Leiostomus xanthurus), a “target species” impacted by the generating facility was used to compare fish losses at the intake with new production of this species in the restored marshes. A “whole estuary” (or seascape) approach to restoration was adopted, one that integrates the concepts of donor control, linkages between tidal salt marshes, the marsh-estuary-coastal continuum and the recruitment success of marine transients. We emphasize that individual wetlands do not function in isolation; rather they are spatially explicit and functionally connected habitat mosaics incorporating ecological processes driven by organism behavior. Linkages among habitats that affect the growth and survival of earlier life stages therefore tend to be underplayed in restoration planning; but few species are confined to a single habitat; e.g., tidal salt marshes. In contrast, the findings of our seascape focused study demonstrated consistent and predictable animal density or productivity ‘hotspots’ in relation to spatial position within the seascape. Both ontogenetic habitat shifts, the use of transitory and temporary habitats, and the concept of the estuarine seascape are discussed in the context of restoring not just habitats, but also estuarine-coastal “connectivity”.

The use of nature-based infrastructure (NBI) has attracted increasing attention in the context of protection against coastal flooding. This review is focused on NBI approaches to improve coastal resilience in the face of extreme storm events, including hurricanes. We not only consider the role of NBI as a measure to protect people and property but also in the context of other ecological goods and services provided by tidal wetlands including production of fish and shellfish. Although the results of many studies suggest that populated areas protected by coastal marshes were less likely to experience damage when exposed to the full force of storm surge, it was absolutely critical to place the role of coastal wetlands into perspective by noting that while tidal marshes can reduce wave energy from low-to-moderate-energy storms, their capacity to substantially reduce storm surge remains poorly quantified. Moreover, although tidal marshes can reduce storm surge from fast moving storms, very large expanses of habitat are needed to be most effective, and for most urban settings, there is insufficient space to rely on nature-based risk reduction strategies alone. The success of a given NBI method is also context dependent on local conditions, with potentially confounding influences from substrate characteristics, topography, near shore bathymetry, distance from the shore and other physical factors and human drivers such as development patterns. Furthermore, it is important to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of newly developed NBI projects through rigorous evaluations and characterize the local specificities of the particular built and natural environments surrounding these coastal areas. In order for the relevant science to better inform policy, and assist in land-use challenges, scientists must clearly state the likelihood of success in a particular circumstance and set of conditions. We conclude that "caution is advised" before selecting a particular NBI method as there is no "one size fits all" solution to address site-specific conditions.

Temporal changes in pore-water salinity and metal concentrations were investigated in soils from two sites (residential and wetland areas) located in the Old Bridge Township, NJ, after Hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast of the United States of America. Core and surface soil samples were collected in both the residential and wetland sites and then analyzed by field portable X-ray fluorescence (NITON XL3t-600 series FP-XRF). Pore-water salinity was determined from continuous measurements (every 10 min) of conductivity in a single sampling well installed in the wetland site. One month after Hurricane Sandy, pore-salinity was as high as 27 g/L, but gradually decreased to 15 g/L in approximately 3 months. Then, it increased gradually to 26 g/L 3 months later. High metal concentrations (lead, arsenic, copper, chromium, and iron) were measured in the surface and top 2-cm soil layer in both residential and wetland sites, often exceeding background levels within weeks of Hurricane Sandy. These metal contaminations were interpreted as being associated with storm surge from Hurricane Sandy that caused substantial flooding of the coastal areas by large amounts of seawater, loaded with dissolved metal and adsorbed metals to suspended sediments from the Raritan Bay Slag Super-fund site. The changes in salinity in wetland areas indicated the intrusion of seawater, thus providing evidence for metal-contaminated seawater altering the wetland's geochemistry. The transport and deposition of metal contaminants in the coastal areas by Hurricane Sandy increased the risk of human exposure to these contaminants.

For many species, quantifying nursery function of estuarine habitats, including tidal salt marshes, for early life stages is complicated by multiple habitat shifts over their period of estuarine residency. Our study relates the physiological condition of young of the year (YOY) of a marine transient species (weakfish Cynoscion regalis) to the quality of habitats frequented during their period of estuarine residency by examining their physiological condition (energetic reserves in the form of triacylglycerol, normalized to the expected changes with length) as a function of habitat use patterns and corresponding stable isotope signatures. In addition, for C. regalis preparing to emigrate offshore to wintering grounds, we evaluated the benefit of energetic reserves towards mitigating over-winter starvation in the context of individual metabolic rate. We found significant spatial distribution in the physiological condition of YOY C. regalis over their period of estuarine residency, with those utilizing polyhaline salt marshes consistently having comparable or higher condition across all years of the study. For C. regalis preparing to emigrate to offshore, we found inter-annual variability both in the relative utilization of marsh versus open bay regions and in their associated energetic reserves. However, variability in reserves was not reflected in the potential benefit of reserves in mitigating over-winter starvation, suggesting plasticity in energy allocation for YOY C. regalis. These results demonstrate that both the habitats utilized over the period of estuarine residency and larger-scale inter-annual variability can affect the condition and preparedness of YOY marine transients for the rigors of migration and over-wintering.

Although the importance of ecosystem services associated with estuarine wetlands and their functional linkages to other estuarine habitats have been increasingly recognized in the past 60 years, the approach to “restoration” and “rehabilitation” of degraded wetland habitats has largely lacked the application of systems thinking and scientific rigor; and has resulted in a “disconnect” between the science and practice of wetland restoration. Examples of coastal wetland restoration science are discussed in the context of wetland functions that promote secondary production, ecological fidelity and their “connectedness” to both adjacent waters and the coastal zone. A means to integrate restoration science and practice to inform policy, and the quantification of restored functions in a systems framework is also described in the context of a sample case history.

Heavy metal-poisoning exerts the serious influence on crops growth, yield and quality. This research has focused on the impacts of HgCl2 with different concentrations on the dynamic trends of photosynthesis, transpiration and water use efficiency (WUE) by using different wheat varieties as materials. The results showed that under 100 μM HgCl2 treatment, wheat leaf photosynthetic rate (Pn) and transpiration rate (Tr) exhibited significant changes, but photosynthetic characteristics presented no obvious regularity, and this kind of impact exerted the critical effects on different Hg2+ concentrations. Similar changes sometimes appeared under low concentration and concentrations. WUE changed more regularly, and WUE of each wheat variety tended to drop after Hg2+ treatments, except the individual concentration treatment. This change indicated that HgCl2 treatment changed normal transpiration and photosynthesis, which led to the changes in leaf water use efficiency and related wheat eco-physiological parameters. All these results provide valuable information for establishing high-efficient stable agro-ecosystems in abiotic-stress area.

The bioaccumulation and biomagnification of sediment-bound hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) are of major concern for environmental and human health. In dynamic estuaries, HOCs can be taken up from sediments, porewater, or the overlying water column concentrations directly or via the diet. The transfer of HOCs including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans (PCDD/Fs) to resident/migratory biota was investigated in 11 finfish species and blue crabs (Callinectes sapidus) in the Passaic River estuary. Concurrently, passive samplers were deployed to assess porewater and overlying water column concentrations. Biota were assigned to three trophic levels based on their tissue 15N isotope values and published life history strategies. There were no significant differences in trophic magnification factors (TMFs) calculated based on life-history scenarios, implying that the migratory species, mostly juveniles, had equilibrated with in situ sources of pollutants at the time they were sampled. Bioaccumulation factors and TMFs were >1 for most PCBs and tetra- and penta-CDD/DFs, indicating that they underwent biomagnification in the food web. All PAHs, PCB 11, and other lower chlorinated PCBs and PCDD/Fs did not magnify. Results from the analysis of HOC profiles implied that biota accumulated HOCs from sediments, porewater, and diet but not from overlying water.

Current policies and norms to reconcile human demands for resources with the Earth’s ability to supply them have resulted in practices that mainly treat the symptoms of unsustainability rather than their underlying causes. Moreover, the increase in our knowledge about humankind’s role in ecosystems is not keeping pace with our understanding of the consequences of our actions, resulting in a deepening inability to address sustainability issues. The extreme complexity and intricate workings of the world require the expansion of our mental models in a systems-thinking framework if we are to realize a sustainable place for humans in it. The challenge of the emerging transdiscipline of sustainability science lies in developing specific tools and processes, including curriculum development and a new generation of systems models, to help us better understand complexity—uncertainty and surprise, scale, hierarchy, and feedback loops—and to educate a new generation of sustainability scientists to design better policies, to facilitate social learning, and to catalyze the technical, economic, social, political, and personal changes needed to create a sustainable world.

Over a century of rapid urbanization and industrialization in New Jersey brought visible impacts on the watershed. Consequently, it puts ever-increasing stress on the resource and environmental capacities of the region. This research focuses on an urban industrial coastal area in New Jersey (Water Management Areas 4, 5, 6 and 7), USA, an ecology heavily impacted by human activities. The objective of this research is to investigate the dynamic interactions between natural environment and human society and to model long-term trends in environmental impact and sustainable development. The data include 21 environmental, social and economic indicators for five counties (Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, and Passaic Counties) collected for years between1980 and 2010 (Some indicators have data only from 1990 to 2010). The data show that within the study area, population has increased by an annual average of 6.4% with a range from -7.9% to 20.7% over 30 years, and per capital GDP increased from $11,836 to $53,362, while unemployment rates fluctuated from 4.4% to 10% over 20 years. The environmental investment increased steadily from $143 million to $247 million from 1990 to 2010. To project the future of environmental sustainability, a system dynamic model was established based on the 21 indicators. Results suggest that population will remain stable, reaching 3.35 million in 2025 from 3.3 million in 2010, and per capita GDP will reach $71,990 with an annual growth rate of 1.7%. A continued increase of environmental investment is also predicted, as per capita GDP growth is forecast to be reasonably strong. The average value of the Pb hazard quotient, which is a pollution indicator, is projected to drop from 5.0 in 1999 to 2.46 in 2025. However, this value will remain within the moderate hazard range. The research indicates that environmental pollution in this urbanized area will remain as a consequence of historical urbanization and industrialization. The system dynamic model suggests that we will be walking a finely-balanced line in Northern New Jersey as the environment continues to suffer from the consequences of long term industrialization and urbanization at the same time that climate change may present new challenges.